Does the story get better later on?

[Vogelmeister]

After enjoying most FF games up to X, I thought I should give this one a try as well.
I was quite surprised, to put it lightly. The writing is terrible right off the bat. Characters communicate in puffs, grunts and half finished sentences. Story makes no sense and nobody bothers explaining what's going on. The protagonist comes across as an inarticulate halfwit who apparently suffers from mood swings.
All in all I'm considering a refund, but 2 hours are hardly enough to tell if such a long story is worth it.
Is the rest of it going to be just as messy, or is the writing and storytelling going to "click" and start making sense at some point? I'd really appreciate some help here.

[Chaos]

I played the game years ago and if memory serves the story does start to flesh out later on. I'm not sure but maybe it was intentional that you don't get many answers to put you in the same boat as Tidus? I can't remember if Tidus mans up later on in the game but you will get him telling you it's his story for a good chunk of it xD

[Adrian Mane]

The writing is terrible and the story is a complete mess all the way through. FFX was aweomse when I was 11, and nostalgia is the only reason I'm considering picking it up off steam. You won't ever hear anyone saying this due to nostalgia blindness and rabid FF brand loyalty though. FFX does have some of the best classic turnbased jrp combat in the entire series, which is the only thing it does well imo.

[Codester]

The story is fairly weak but I wouldn't say it's a mess. Unless of course you are blindly ignoring the cut scenes and failing to use any sort of thinking to decipher what going on.

[thaalien]

The story is good, what's bad is the acting, and dialog. The voice acting, and the dialog is amateurish at best. The combat system, and sphere system is really what I admire most about this game. The side quests and blitzball are also a plus. I would say it's worth picking up, or keeping it if you bought it.

[cidgrad01]

The story is excellent with two major twists you don't see coming. You don't know what's going on for around the first half of the game but all the blanks get filled in. I have played this game a zillion times over the years and still find little things I didn't notice before. The story is very well put together.

The voice acting and spotty dialogue do sometimes grate on your nerves, but despite even that I loved all of these characters by the end. The most tear-jerker ending of any FF Game I have played (and I've played 'em all but 15).

Compared to 12, which had great voice acting but completely forgettable characters and story, I will take FFX and its imperfections any day. The gameplay is excellent, also. Just for reference, I consider 13 to be far and away the worst entry in the entire series.

[Page Down]

Don't play with horrible English dub. Americans always finds a ways to ruin good Japanese products.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Mana_Grey:

Don't play with horrible English dub. Americans always finds a ways to ruin good Japanese products.

Not always true, but in this case...
Remember that english dubing has evolved lightyears from what it was 15 years ago. And not just from japanese to english, but english voiceacting in general. There are so many old games(10+) that are fully english or american, with terrible voice acting.

Anyway, the story and "commentary" of FFX is intriguing. It questions stuff like blind faith and selfsacrifice, while also touches on power corruption(classic FF theme), Karma/balance, family bonds.
Throughout the story you feel that Tidus bond with his companions and the world he is in, and as he learns more about what is going on in Spira, he learns more about himself as well.

So if you can overlook the, at times, cringe dialogue, and see the point behind the words(I will have to try the japanese voices and see if it is better), it is quite good.

It is an engaging story with some good twists, and the exposition of background makes sense since your character knows nothing of the world(due to his idol status and pampered background, and being in a "different" world), and you see him evolve from that, slowly but steady.

[Vogelmeister]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Originally posted by Mana_Grey:

Don't play with horrible English dub. Americans always finds a ways to ruin good Japanese products.

Not always true, but in this case...
Remember that english dubing has evolved lightyears from what it was 15 years ago. And not just from japanese to english, but english voiceacting in general. There are so many old games(10+) that are fully english or american, with terrible voice acting.

The same doesn't apply to writing though. All the previous FF games I'd played (V, VI, VII, VIII, IX) were nicely written. If nothing else, characters reacted to events as sane people would. Of course, the problem might be in translation here, but if that's true then the English version must have had half the lines cut out. Hard to believe that was the case. Also, earlier FF games were decently translated and definitely much more articulate.

[pre-eminence]

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Not always true, but in this case...
Remember that english dubing has evolved lightyears from what it was 15 years ago. And not just from japanese to english, but english voiceacting in general. There are so many old games(10+) that are fully english or american, with terrible voice acting.

The same doesn't apply to writing though. All the previous FF games I'd played (V, VI, VII, VIII, IX) were nicely written. If nothing else, characters reacted to events as sane people would. Of course, the problem might be in translation here, but if that's true then the English version must have had half the lines cut out. Hard to believe that was the case. Also, earlier FF games were decently translated and definitely much more articulate.

VII got a decent translation? That is funny to me and of course Squall reacts in a sane way, if you are a 15 year old emo with parent issues anyway. Of course I am only joking here, you are entitled to your opinions I just don't agree.

[Vogelmeister]

Originally posted by pre-eminence:

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

The same doesn't apply to writing though. All the previous FF games I'd played (V, VI, VII, VIII, IX) were nicely written. If nothing else, characters reacted to events as sane people would. Of course, the problem might be in translation here, but if that's true then the English version must have had half the lines cut out. Hard to believe that was the case. Also, earlier FF games were decently translated and definitely much more articulate.

VII got a decent translation? That is funny to me and of course Squall reacts in a sane way, if you are a 15 year old emo with parent issues anyway. Of course I am only joking here, you are entitled to your opinions I just don't agree.

Squall was in VIII, but I get your point, And yes, he was a bit of a wuss :) Maybe it's a good thing he wasn't voice-acted.

[pre-eminence]

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

Originally posted by pre-eminence:

VII got a decent translation? That is funny to me and of course Squall reacts in a sane way, if you are a 15 year old emo with parent issues anyway. Of course I am only joking here, you are entitled to your opinions I just don't agree.

Well, yes. Squall was a bit of a wuss :) Maybe it's a good thing he wasn't voice-acted.

I think you're right on that one, I can't imagine a decent voice for Squall, the guy they used in KH was okay I guess, but how can you make whiney cool?

[Vogelmeister]

Originally posted by pre-eminence:

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

Well, yes. Squall was a bit of a wuss :) Maybe it's a good thing he wasn't voice-acted.

I think you're right on that one, I can't imagine a decent voice for Squall, the guy they used in KH was okay I guess, but how can you make whiney cool?

Making whiney cool is next to impossible. I can't think of a single character who would constantly gawk, ♥♥♥♥♥ and complain about everything, and still come across as likeable. And all the witty quips and voice acting in the world won't help. Remember Franklin from GTA V?
That's the beauty of reading the lines instead of hearing them. I can adjust the character's emotions to a certain extent while reading. Can't do the same when someone says it out loud.

[pre-eminence]

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

Originally posted by pre-eminence:

I think you're right on that one, I can't imagine a decent voice for Squall, the guy they used in KH was okay I guess, but how can you make whiney cool?

Making whiney cool is next to impossible. I can't think of a single character who would constantly gawk, ♥♥♥♥♥ and complain about everything, and still come across as likeable. And all the witty quips and voice acting in the world won't help. Remember Franklin from GTA V?
That's the beauty of reading the lines instead of hearing them. I can adjust the character's emotions to a certain extent while reading. Can't do the same when someone says it out loud.

Good points, I suppose we all read the words the way we wanted to hear them and for some the voice acting may ruin that feeling they got.

[Vogelmeister]

Originally posted by pre-eminence:

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

Making whiney cool is next to impossible. I can't think of a single character who would constantly gawk, ♥♥♥♥♥ and complain about everything, and still come across as likeable. And all the witty quips and voice acting in the world won't help. Remember Franklin from GTA V?
That's the beauty of reading the lines instead of hearing them. I can adjust the character's emotions to a certain extent while reading. Can't do the same when someone says it out loud.

Good points, I suppose we all read the words the way we wanted to hear them and for some the voice acting may ruin that feeling they got.

Just yesterday I was replaying Baldur's Gate II. They sometimes voice-act the first line of important dialog and leave the rest for the player to read. And I immediately found myself thinking: "No, no, no! That's not how Imoen sounds in my head". Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I've always found Squall more or less tolerable. I've imagined him having a slightly more manly voice. One that doesn't match those teary eyes.

[pre-eminence]

Originally posted by Vogelmeister:

Originally posted by pre-eminence:

Good points, I suppose we all read the words the way we wanted to hear them and for some the voice acting may ruin that feeling they got.

Just yesterday I was replaying Baldur's Gate II. They sometimes voice-act the first line of important dialog and leave the rest for the player to read. And I immediately found myself thinking: "No, no, no! That's not how Imoen sounds in my head". Now that I think about it, maybe that's why I've always found Squall more or less tolerable. I've imagined him having a slightly more manly voice. One that doesn't match those teary eyes.

lol I think you are onto something here, I always just asumed Squall would sound like he had tears ready for any second. Yet I until I replayed it last year I always though Zell was cool... the eyes of a child eh?